1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to games of chance, and more particularly to novel variations on the roulette wheel and wagers placed thereon. The present invention comprises a roulette wheel essentially having the Roman alphabet thereon, rather than numbers; other alphabets may be used alternatively. A series of different wagers may be placed on the outcome of various letters or combinations of letters turning up on any given spin or series of spins of the wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
The gambling and gaming industry has expanded considerably over the years, as more and more people have more free time and disposable income. Nonetheless, the gambling industry tends to be relatively conservative at its base, with essentially the same games being played over the years and generally with only minor variations on the methods or rules of play. As a result, there is greater familiarity with most of the various gambling games played throughout most of the casinos and gaming establishments throughout the U.S., and throughout the world, for that matter. This may be reassuring for the neophyte or infrequent player, who does not wish to learn new rules and who may feel uncomfortable with new games or rules. However, the proliferation of standard games throughout the industry may result in boredom for many experienced players who wish to try something new and different.
The present alphabetic roulette game provides a solution to this problem, in that it uses tried and true, conventional roulette wheel technology, which is familiar to all gamblers. However, rather than placing numbers on the wheel, the present invention displays the twenty-six letters of the Roman alphabet in twenty-five positions on the wheel, with the letters Y and Z combined as a single position. Other arrangements and/or alphabets may be used as desired. The present invention provides a series of different wagers that cannot be played on a numerical roulette wheel, such as wagering on the probability of any single letter in a group of letters forming a word, turning up on the wheel. Other wagers similar to those used in conventional numerical roulette may be played as well, e.g., “line” wagers, “street” wagers, etc., but with the wagers being placed upon consecutive runs or groups of letters, rather than upon numbers, as in conventional roulette. Moreover, multiple colors may be applied to the wheel positions as desired, to allow players to place wagers on a color or colors as desired.
A discussion of the related art of which the present inventor is aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided below.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,561 published on Sep. 16, 1980 to Hubert N. Whitten, titled “Game Device,” describes a roulette type wheel with a series of letters of the Roman alphabet thereon. The Whitten wheel includes a total of thirty-six lettered positions thereon, with many of the letters obviously being duplicated. This teaches away from the present invention, with its use of unduplicated letters in all positions. The Whitten wheel cannot be used for wagering without unduly complicating the odds calculations for players, due to the greater chance of certain letters coming up than others. In fact, Whitten does not disclose any form of wagering on his alphabetic wheel. Rather, he uses a letter randomly selected by his wheel to designate the first letter of an object from a group of related objects, e.g., kinds of fruit, etc. The subject player must come up with an object having a name that begins with the letter selected on the Whitten roulette wheel in order to win that particular play or turn. Whitten does not provide any means of wagering upon single letters or groups of letters, either in consecutive order or forming a word, which features are parts of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,171 issued on Dec. 24, 1985 to Zacharias Anthony, titled “Poker Game,” describes a game having a series of boards or cards, each having fifty-three positions thereon. Representations of the fifty-two cards of a standard deck are placed thereon with a double position provided for a joker or wild card. Each position has a corresponding number. A roulette wheel is marked with fifty-two to fifty-four numbers (depending upon the number of joker or wild card positions) corresponding to the numbers on the game boards. The wheel is used to randomly select cards to form hands for playing. While Anthony notes that the alphabet could be used to indicate the correspondence between the wheel and game board positions, he does not base any form of wagering upon the outcome of such an alphabetically labeled wheel, per se. Rather, the alphabetic indications referred to by Anthony are strictly for the identification of the corresponding card positions on his game boards, where such an alphabetic system is used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,160 issued on May 19, 1987 to Clarence Q. Hamilton, titled “Apparatus For Playing,” describes a large number of variations on mancala and vectorial type games. At least one embodiment includes a circular playing area with a limited, lettered periphery (shown in FIG. 12 of the '160 patent), but there is no provision for selecting letters randomly from the board, nor is there any disclosure of any wagering system or payout odds for wagers upon a lettered wheel, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,819 issued on Dec. 19, 1989 to John A. Walker, titled “Casino Board Game,” describes a relatively complex game, which includes a roulette wheel and combines aspects of several different traditional or conventional gambling games. No alphabetic layout for the roulette wheel is disclosed by Walker, nor does he provide any means for wagering upon any alphabetic outcome in using such a wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,448 issued on Mar. 27, 1990 to Benny Thomas, titled “Spinner Device,” describes a wheel containing all of the letters of the Roman alphabet, with no duplication or omissions. The wheel is used to select a letter randomly, with players being required to develop a list of words that begin with the randomly selected letter. No wagering systems of any kind are disclosed by Thomas. The Thomas game more closely resembles the game of the '561 U.S. Patent to Whitten, described further above, than it does the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,853 issued on Sep. 10, 1996 to Solomon K. Sackitey, titled “Game Apparatus And Method Of Play For Teaching DNA Related Technologies,” describes a roulette type wheel having a series of seventy-one lettered positions thereon. Most of the letters of the alphabet are repeated, with several letters (B, J, U, X, and Z) being omitted from the wheel. The omission of any letters makes it impossible to place wagers upon any sequences that may be developed using the present alphabetic roulette wheel. Accordingly, Sackitey does not disclose any form of wagering upon the outcome of a spin(s) of his wheel. Rather, the Sackitey wheel is used as a teaching tool, using the randomly selected letters to represent nucleotides, which are used to develop a hypothetical DNA sequence.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,659 issued on May 9, 2000 to Steven L. Busch et al., titled “Roulette Table Having Progressive Jackpots,” describes a game in which players place wagers upon the prospect of a single number coming up consecutively for some predetermined number of turns of the wheel. Players do not have the option of passing after some number of plays before reaching the predetermined number of spins of the wheel for the jackpot. No disclosure is made of any provision for using alphabetic characters and/or color in the Busch et al. roulette game.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,647 issued on Dec. 26, 2000 to Ah-Him Chong Toc Chee, titled “Casino Wheel Game System,” describes a mechanically complex roulette wheel comprising upper and lower wheels, which may be randomly joined to select a specific color and number outcome on the lower wheel. No alphabetic designations on the wheel are disclosed, nor is any form of wagering or odds disclosed by Chee for his wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,770 issued on Oct. 22, 2002 to Anto Matosevic, titled “Roulette Game,” describes an essentially conventional roulette wheel with some additional provisions. No alphabetic wheel layout is disclosed, nor does Matosevic provide any means for placing wagers upon the probability of any letter or letters turning up during play.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,462 issued on Dec. 9, 2003 to Timothy J. Scott, titled “Game And Game Table,” describes a relatively complex game involving cards for the first portion of the game and a pair of concentric roulette wheels for the second portion. One wheel includes the letters of the alphabet and an additional two or three “house” positions, which greatly increases the odds in favor of the house. The other wheel is used to determine the payout odds. In the present game, the odds are already established by the probability of any of the letters coming up in a given spin of the single wheel provided. Scott does not disclose any system for wagering upon any of the combinations of letters, as provided by the present alphabetic roulette game invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,106 issued on Dec. 16, 2003 to Giuseppe Cosmi, titled “Roulette Of Improved Type And New Gambling Game Providing For The Use Of Said Improved Roulette,” describes the use of two concentric wheels, with one having thirty-two numerical positions thereon (including zero) and the other having the signs of the zodiac (European or Asian) thereon. Other markings or symbols may be provided in addition to the numerical and zodiac markings. Players must “hit” on winning positions on both wheels in order to maximize their winnings. Cosmi notes that alphabets and languages other than the Roman alphabet and English may be used for the various zodiac and other descriptions, but he does not disclose a wheel having solely an alphabetic pattern thereon to designate the different potential positions on the wheel, nor does he disclose any form of wagers for such a wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,978 issued on Apr. 20, 2004 to Mark F. Valenti, titled “Method Of Playing A Linked Numerical Game Of Chance With A Bonus And Parlay Wagering Option,” describes a game that more closely resembles lotto than roulette. In any event no alphabetic roulette system or roulette game using colors is disclosed by Valenti.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/94,752 published on May 22, 2003, titled “Method And Apparatus For Roulette-Type Games,” describes a multiple ball roulette game in which four separate balls are played simultaneously. This results in considerably greater complication, when the possibility of four different balls alighting upon four different numbers is considered. However, Matthews does not disclose any form of alphabetic roulette wheel with his game. Only a conventional numbered roulette wheel is disclosed.
British Patent No. 2,241,900 published on Sep. 18, 1991, titled “Board Game,” describes a game in which some form of randomizing device is used to select letters of the alphabet. The device may be a roulette wheel (not shown in the disclosure). A card designates the position of the letter in a word, with a word category having been previously determined. The player must come up with a word in the appropriate category and in which the randomly determined letter is in the proper position. No wagering system is disclosed by Pearlman.
Finally, French Patent No. 2,662,950 published on Dec. 13, 1991, titled “Educational Philatelic Game,” describes (according to the drawings and English abstract) a game which utilizes a roulette wheel with positions representing characteristics of a country, along with various other components. The wheel is not shown, nor is there any indication of any alphabetic indicia used upon the wheel. No wagering system is apparent from the drawings and English abstract.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, an alphabetic roulette game solving the aforementioned problems is desired.